E-text prepared by David Starner
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
| Note: | H. T. Swedenberg, Jr. (1906-1978) was a professor at the University of California (Los Angeles). In 1946 he, Edward N. Hooker, and Richard C. Boys founded the Augustan Reprint Society, with Swedenberg as general editor. The Society reprinted many rare works, drawn largely from the collections of the University of California's library. The two anonymous essays here were part of a series of essays on the stage. |
Membership in the Augustan Reprint Society entitles the subscriber tosix publications issued each year. The annual membership fee is $2.50.Address subscriptions and communications to The Augustan ReprintSociety in care of the General Editors: Richard C. Boys, University ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; or Edward N. Hooker or H.T. Swedenberg,Jr., University of California, Los Angeles 24, California. EditorialAdvisors: Louis I. Bredvold, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,Michigan, and James L. Clifford, Columbia University, New York.
In the spring of 1698 the rumblings against the excesses of theEnglish stage broke into a roar with the publication of JeremyCollier's Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the EnglishStage. A wild joyousness marked Collier's attack, and at times itseemed as though the zeal of the Lord had eaten him up. But he was noenthusiast without plan or reason. A man of some learning, he used itfor all it was worth to confound the playwrights and the critics.
Collier was careful to make good use of accepted and honored criticalprinciples. He contended that the purpose of the stage is to instruct;he argued for poetic justice; he discussed the unities; he spoke ofpropriety of manners and language; and he warned of the danger offancy's overriding judgment—"the Fancy may be gain'd, and the Guardscorrupted, and Reason suborn'd against itself." Unfortunately forCollier, however, such argument from reason and critical theory wasonly part of his book. He pretended to be attacking the currentexcesses, but a reading of his entire book gives the definiteimpression that he was really opposing the stage as an institution.His enemies were quick to point this out. He also weakened hisargument by finding bawdry where there was none, overlooking the manyunquestionably off-color passages in the Restoration plays.Furthermore he was extremely touchy about the clergy, arguingviolently that no priest should ever be satirized. In short, Collierweakened a strong position by immoderate demands and contentions.
After a short, uneasy silence, the defenders of the stage began toanswer. By the end of the summer, ten rejoinders had appeared, amongwhich was the anonymous A Letter to A.H. Esq; Concerning the Stage.The initials in the title have been identified as those of AnthonyHammond, pamphleteer, small poet, and politician, whom Bolingbrokecharacterized as "silver-tongued Hammond." Charles Hop